Video 10:34
Paul Dale Verdict

Guy Stayner
Thu 28 Mar 2013, 9:26 PM AEDT

Senior Sergeant Paul Dale has been cleared of giving false evidence about his relationship with gangland figure Carl Williams.

Transcript

TRACY BOWDEN, PRESENTER: One of the most intriguing criminal cases in recent legal history has tonight come to a dramatic end. A Victorian jury has just delivered its verdict in the trial of former policeman Paul Noel Dale. For the past decade, corruption allegations against Dale have been a thorn in the side of Victoria Police. His name has been inextricably linked to Melbourne's gangland wars and to some infamous killings. For much of that time the media has been unable to tell the full story. Tonight, senior sergeant Paul Dale has been acquitted of the final charges against him, so his story can now be told. Guy Stayner reports, and a warning: his story contains strong language.

GUY STAYNER, REPORTER: It was the night of the 2003 AFL Grand Final in Melbourne. Inside a modest house in a leafy street in the suburb of Oakley was a massive stash of ecstasy. The house had been under surveillance by the drug squad. At 7 o'clock, thieves broke in. A watchful neighbour noticed something wrong and called the local police.

When police arrested the intruders fleeing the scene, it became apparent it was an inside job. One of the burglars was a detective from the drug squad.

ANDREW RULE, JOURNALIST & CRIME WRITER: This is not picking up a couple of football tickets. This is not getting a slab of beer for a barbecue from the local pu. This is heavy stuff. Corruption might start at that low level, but this is what it grows into.

GUY STAYNER: The detective react arrested was David Michel, a senior constable in the drug squad. The second man arrested was Terence Hodson, a career criminal and registered police informant. He named a third man: senior sergeant Paul Dale, also from the drug squad.

GUY STAYNER: The name Paul Dale echoed through many of the gangland killings and police corruption investigations that were to come. Paul Dale would be suspended, dismissed, reinstated, investigated, phone tapped, charged with trafficking and theft, and ultimately, murder. He has avoided any penalty.

Have the cases against Paul Dale been something of a long-running sore in Victoria's criminal justice system?

ANDREW RULE: Yes, a long-running and festering sore in this criminal justice system.

GUY STAYNER: Detective David Michel was convicted and sentenced to 15 years jail. In December 2003, Paul Dale was charged and suspended from the force.

The case came in the midst of Melbourne's gangland war. Two months after Dale's arrest, a police investigation found that he was talking to one of the key players in that war, drug baron Carl Williams. Their discussions were taped.

PAUL DALE (male voiceover): "I was f***ing hoping to catch up to you tonight. Been trying to get on to you f***ing for quite some time."

GUY STAYNER: In early May 2004, police devices tracked Carl Williams and his father George driving to a location near where Dale was working. George Williams later gave evidence that Williams got into a blue car driven by Dale.

Another witness gave evidence that Paul Dale was passing inside information to Carl Williams, warning him when other police were closing in on his drug empire. This left Williams free to pursue his vendetta against his gangland rivals. The witness told Dale's defence counsel, "If it wasn't for your client, we would have been locked up and none of this war would have happened."

In early 2004, Hodson was waiting to testify against Dale over the burglary. Hodson refused police protection, preferring the company of his friends and family at home. Police were worried, but the Hodsons' home was well-protected.

CHARLIE BEZZINA, FORMER HOMICIDE DETECTIVE: It was a bit of fortified place. There was video coverage of it, there was a Alsatian or a German shepherd or some sort of big dog at the back, so he thought he was pretty safe. Yet, there was only so far police could take it. You can't force someone into witness protection. He was happy to stay there and run his life. And unfortunately the consequences are he paid for it.

GUY STAYNER: In May 2004, Terence Hodson and his wife Christine were shot dead in their Melbourne home.

CHARLIE BEZZINA: They were both executed in the back room.

GUY STAYNER: Senior sergeant Charlie Bezzina attended the scene.

CHARLIE BEZZINA: How we found the crime scene, it appeared to me that he knew who his killers were. And Christine I think was collateral damage, the fact that she was there.

GUY STAYNER: Because Hodson had been the main witness against Paul Dale, the case against him collapsed. As another police officer later told court, "Upon the death of Terence Hodson, the principal witness against Mr Dale, the charges were withdrawn by the OPP."

ANDREW RULE: The Hodson murders looked bad for Dale because he obviously had a stake in the Hodsons being removed as witnesses, or at least Terry Hodson being removed as a witness, regarding the Oakley burglary.

GUY STAYNER: Within hours of the killings, Paul Dale, now on suspension, was visited by senior sergeant Bezzina.

CHARLIE BEZZINA: We went there in the early hours of the morning, knocked on the door, he answered the door. He knew who I was. And he said, "Well I'm not coming unless you arrest me." So I basically said, "Well you're under arrest, Paul. Let's go."

GUY STAYNER: But the investigation into the Hodson murders stalled.

PAUL DALE (June 4, 2010): I've maintained my innocence from day one of these events. I'm totally innocent of the murder of Christine and Terence Hodson.

GUY STAYNER: It wasn't until three years later that police got evidence pointing to Dale having been behind the murders and it came from a source close to Dale, Carl Williams. By this stage Williams was behind bars serving a 35-year sentence over several gangland murders. But he was playing a dangerous game, giving information to police in return for a number of rewards. Williams' jailhouse testimony to police emerged in a later trial. It described how he and Dale discussed getting rid of Terence Hodson.

CARL WILLIAMS (male voiceover): "We went for a walk. Dale told me he had to get Hodson, had to get Hodson before Dale's committal. Dale said he didn't want to go back to jail. ... I told Dale I'd help him out if he needed me to."

GUY STAYNER: The agreed price, according to Williams, was $150,000. Williams told police he'd contracted a hitman and passed on the money to the hired killer.

What did Carl Williams tell police once he did a deal with them in relation to Paul Dale?

ANDREW RULE: Carl Williams was quite capable, to be fair, of manipulating the situation or lying to further his own ends. But what Williams, rightly or wrongly, told the authorities was that basically he'd set up the hit on the Hodsons for Dale.

GUY STAYNER: Carl Williams' evidence against Paul Dale was never tested in court, but it was tested by the Australian Crime Commission. By 2007, the ACC had got involved in the investigation into the Hodson murders. It questioned Dale about his relationship with Williams.

ANDREW RULE: He told the authorities, he told the Crime Commission that, no, he hardly knew Williams at all and that only as a dutiful policeman did he talk to Williams. .. It appears that he wasn't being fully frank.

GUY STAYNER: The Crime Commission case against Paul Dale was not a murder charge. It did not allege that he conspired with Carl Williams to have Hodson killed. What Dale was charged with was simply lying - lying about this relationship with Williams, lying about it 12 times.

But in 2009, Paul Dale was charged with the Hodson murders along with the alleged triggerman. The key witness against him was Carl Williams. In April 2010, Williams' role in assisting police, which made him a dog in criminal circles, was blown wide open. Melbourne's Herald Sun splashed a story that Victoria police was paying for Williams' daughter's school fees. Williams is seen in this CCTV footage reading the article in maximum security at Barwon Prison. The message was clear: Williams was giving information to police. That same day he was bashed to death by fellow inmate Matthew Johnson.

NEWSREADER II: The 39-year-old died from severe head injuries sustained during an attack by another inmate.

GUY STAYNER: For the Hodson family, Carl Williams' killing was an echo of their father's.

NIKKI HODSON, DAUGHTER: If he was helping police with any inquiries, he should have been their main target by keeping him safe, because look what happened to dad. He was helping the police out and they lost their lives for it.

GUY STAYNER: After Williams' death, Victoria Police didn't have a case against Paul Dale over the killing of the Hodsons and the charges were dropped. The full story behind Carl Williams' murder may never be known. Paul Dale is not the only person who benefitted.

What do we know about the death of Carl Williams and why he might have been killed?

ANDREW RULE: It could have been any number of reasons why someone wanted to kill Carl Williams and not all of them good and not necessarily linked to Paul Dale. ... There are other reasons why prisoners get killed in jail. They get killed in jail because, you know, they stole the dim sims. They don't need big excuses to get killed.